Moto G96 5G

While most high-end and flagship smartphones have ditched curved displays in favour of flat panels, the Moto G96 continues to boast a 6.67-inch curved pOLED display. This panel comes with full HD+ (2,400 x 1,080 pixels) resolution and up to 144Hz refresh rate support. The high brightness and peak brightness figures are 1,200 nits and 1,600 nits, respectively.With the default colour and temperature settings, the display produced punchy and vibrant colours, which were to my liking. I binge-watched "From the World of John Wick: Ballerina" movie on the Moto G96 and got an impressive visual experience. The movie features several dark scenes, but I didn't come across any issues that could potentially ruin the experience. At the same time, the contrasting tones and highlights nicely popped out. As for the screen's brightness, the Moto G96's display was fairly legible indoors and outdoors at the maximum brightness levels.

The Moto G96 sports dual rear cameras consisting of a 50MP 1/1.56" SONY LYTIA 700C OIS-enabled main camera and an 8MP ultrawide camera with a 118-degree field of view. The ultrawide lens also doubles up as a macro camera for snapping close-up pictures. With a good amount of lighting, the device can provide some decent macro shots for the price. The shots are detailed and have a certain amount of texture, resulting in usable pictures for sharing on social media.Coming back to the main camera, on paper, the Moto G96's main camera sensor size is larger than that of its rivals, such as the Samsung Galaxy M36 and Realme Narzo 80 Pro. Both of these come with almost half-inch sensors, giving the Moto G96 an edge. As for real-world performance, the G96's colour science leans towards producing saturated and vibrant colours. The phone retains details and maintains a good dynamic range using the main camera. In overcast conditions, the camera tends to crush the shadows, though this is a specific situation.

The Moto G96 boasts the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 2, which is the same chipset we recently saw on the Moto Edge 60 Stylus and last year's Moto Edge 50 Fusion. The processor carries a high clock speed of 2.4GHz and packs the Adreno 710 GPU. It is manufactured using Samsung's 4nm process technology. Our review unit of the Moto G96 packed 8GB of RAM with 256GB of storage, while the phone also comes in an 8GB + 128GB storage variant. While the storage is non-expandable, the Moto G96 comes with UFS 2.2 storage speeds and LPDDR4X RAM type. 

To describe the software of the Moto G96, it is functional, customisable, and quite clean. The handset runs on Android 15-based Hello UI skin with a promise of just one OS upgrade, which is a bummer considering many phones under the Rs 20,000 mark promise at least two Android upgrades. While I didn't encounter any unnecessary marketing notifications or ads during my usage, the G96 comes pre-loaded with several third-party applications, namely Glance lockscreen, Facebook, LinkedIn, Adobe Scan, Microsoft Copilot, and Perplexity.The phone not only carries traditional Motorola features, such as a chop chop gesture to turn on the flashlight or a double twist to summon the camera, but also includes productivity and security features. These include Smart Connect, which allows you to connect the Moto G96 with a Windows PC to sync notifications, share files, or access the apps on your phone and Moto Secure 3.0 to lock apps and folders. While there aren't many system-level AI features, the phone gains access to the entire Google suite of AI features, including Magic Editor, Magic Eraser, and Photo Unblur, through Google Photos, as well as Gemini and Circle to Search.The phone also offers quite a bit in terms of customisation options. The 'Personalisation' menu allows you to change the app icon shapes, accent colour, font, homescreen layout, and fingerprint unlock animation. My favourite customisation feature on Hello UI is the ability to change the lockscreen clock style and colour. The lock screen also supports adding static widgets, such as weather, AQI level, humidity level, and more.Furthermore, the software also features several gesture-based options that can be useful in daily use. I found myself using the three-finger screenshot, one-handed mode, and sidebar regularly.

The Moto G96 gets a 5,500mAh battery, which is higher than the Samsung Galaxy M36, but lower than the Realme Narzo 80 Pro's. Similarly, phones like OPPO K13 and Realme P3, which also sell under Rs 20,000, get 6,000mAh and higher capacities. However, considering how Moto managed to make the G96 sleek and lightweight, the 5,500mAh is not a deal breaker. As for actual endurance, the phone lasted 10 hours and 53 minutes in our PCMark lab test, almost two hours more than the Samsung Galaxy M36.As for charging, the Moto G96 gets 33W fast charging support, and the adapter is bundled in the box. We were able to charge the device from 20 to 100 percent in just over an hour. For preserving the battery health and maintaining its longevity, the software gets features like Optimised charging and Overcharge protection, which fluctuate the charging power based on the charging percentage.